I agree with Visserdrix’s suggestion to use your gold cards to signpost themes in your cube, as Wizards now tend to do in their own sets.

My second cube is built along these lines. I designed it to draft with my sons and for them to draft with friends. It avoids older cards so the templating is post-M10, and the focus on archetype synergies makes it easier to draft an effective deck. The supported archetypes are as follows:

Archetypes are not limited to a single strategy: WB can be drafted as either more aggressive or more controlling; BG is typically midrange but can have combo elements; etc.

Archetypes can bleed into each other, for example white token producers support both the token and go wide decks, and something like Cloudgoat Ranger is a tasty blink target. Similarly cards that have elements of more than one archetype are valuable both to increase density of support and create interesting draft picks. Legion’s Landing is both a token producer and a go-wide incentive; Voldaren Pariah is a sacrifice enabler with Madness; Nissa, Voice of Zendikar supports tokens, +1/+1 counters and lands matter.

ing archetype support out of colour is fine and to some extent unavoidable. Young Pyromancer is included as a spells matter card, but also happens to produce tokens. This enables 3+ colour decks and helps stop the draft from becoming stale by allowing more surprise synergies.

My list is not yet balanced properly. All archetypes are viable, but there are individual cards that may be at the wrong power level. For me this will have to come through testing.

With regards to your list, I think you are setting your power level too low. Bear in mind that standard draft sets contain cards that have to cater to other formats, and still contain a lot of cards that are draft “filler”. Simply by removing these there is a good chance that your cube will produce decks above the power of a standard draft.

Treefolk will be a challenge. It is likely to be a very linear archetype and difficult to get enough black representation. You could expand a little into “creatures matter” and “forests matter”. I’d also break the singleton rule for key cards like Bosk Banneret or any playable black Treefolk.

I’d be inclined to give a bit more to RG than just aggro. Maybe werewolves if you want another tribal theme, +1/+1 counters, or even lands matter.

Taking this route will create a unique cube that is tailored to what you most enjoy about magic. The downside is that it will be harder to find advice because other cube builders will be appraising cards on different criteria.

Welcome back to cubing, and congratulations on the coming birth of your son.

Until last year I’d stopped cubing as much. I moved away from my regular mtg group and didn’t find a replacement.

What got me back into it were my sons, particularly the older one. Both had learned to play magic with my old cards but it has become a popular pastime with their peer group. So I built a new cube for my boys and their friends to play.

The result is in my sig as a Beginner Cube. It strongly pushes 10 2-colour archetypes, but there is a fair bit of overlap: W/G tokens helps R/W go-wide aggro; B/R madness/hellbent helps U/B reanimator; and so on.

I went for modern cards only, ideally with post-M10 templating for consistency, and have avoided expensive cards.

I’m quite pleased with the results, and although the format is perhaps not as skill testing, it produces cohesive decks that are reasonably balanced and certainly fun.

My suggestion for building a budget Cube, therefore, is perhaps not to go for a watered-down version of a powered cube, but to pick some archetypes you enjoy and build your cube around those with the best cards you can afford.

Budget mana bases are an issue, though, without the dual/fetch/shock trifecta.

Yesterday:
I push tokens as an archetype that can span all five colours, so Purphoros is a key red card to support those decks. He is good enough in those situations even if he is unlikely to manifest as a creature.

I am an atheist, but dislike the more militant approach of Dawkins, Hitchens, etc. Live and let live.

It reflects well on this forum that someone can ask a question like that and we don't find the thread locked half an hour later.

Today:
Only hitting creatures keeps Flame Slash out of my cube. If I ran Planeswalkers the card would be even more frustrating.

Magma Jet is probably the most played burn spell in my deck: the scry is universally useful whatever the archetype. Blast From the Past is my favourite burn spell, but that's a different question.

@Cuttups I'm enjoying your playlist. Nice to hear Heartbeats by The Knife. I have it on my Originals playlist, which has a corresponding Covers playlist.

Pox as an archetype is out of my cube at the moment, but because it has become less powerful. We have had quite a few strong token producing cards printed, and I have pushed token strategies. I found that this made it easy for too many decks to shrug off Pox effects because they happen to be running token producers. Has anyone else found this?

Whilst it can be helpful to discuss these things on the boards, it doesn't really matter what the rest of us her would do. The only thing that matters is how your group chooses to play. Having someone who is the odd one out is always tricky, whether it's a noob in a group of seasoned pros, or an ultra-competitive player in a group who just want to play casually, or whatever. I suggest checking in with other members of your group to see whether a player's behaviour bothers them. If it does, have a quiet word with the player in question, but take ownership of the problem. Unless the guy is doing anything objectively bad, explain that you and the others prefer to play a certain way, and request that he tone his behaviour down a bit to improve the mood. Most reasonable people respond well to this.

How else are you getting people to access the form? You have a good number of replies after one day.

Did you pilot the survey? It looks like you will get some skewed data from time cubing/time playing magic from the cut offs: I've been cubing since 2005 and playing Magic since 1994, significantly longer than 5 and 10 years respectively.

I like the bevel around the edge of the lid. These details can make a big difference.

The fasteners look a little chunky, but probably necessary if you are transporting the cards about. I'd love a wooden box if I was mostly cubing at home, but it wouldn't be my first choice for travelling.

I watched the trailer earlier today with my sons, both of whom love Star Wars. They were underwhelmed by the first trailer but this one provoked outrage when I explained that the movie won't be out for another eight months. I'm struggling to wait but it must seem like an eternity when you are only five.

I played my first game of magic with my older son, and he's hooked! I built a basic deck of each colour, avoiding complexity and gruesome art. He picked the blue deck and has declared himself a blue mage. Unfortunately I then found him teaching his younger brother. They now play each other and I have nobody to play against.

I haven't been posting much lately, on account of moving house, starting a new job, and working on a part time MSc. I need to find a new cube group.

This seems like an interesting card for cubes that want to push UW in a heavy control direction. On the standard measure of "can it protect itself" it does not do anything... other than having a loyalty of 7 if you choose to +1 it. In creature-light decks it could be reliably drawing a card about half the time, which is not too bad. Rebound seems nice, but a lot of instants and sorceries are not so relevant with rebound: countermagic is likely to have no target, and there may be no relevant targets for removal. Rebounding a Time Walk would be nice, though, and if there is no advantage in Rebound then you can just go for the +1.

The ultimate seems eminently attainable, and against many decks it will negate a significant number of powerful cards. Against certain decks it could be crippling.